ASSESSMENT OF PATIENT’S WAITING TIME IN THE RADIOLOGY DEPARTMENTS IN OWERRI, IMO STATE, NIGERIA

Radiography has seen itself at the centre of modern medicine as a diagnostic tool in diagnosing treating and managing ailment. Unlike other arms of the hospital that are designed to carter for specific kinds of illnesses, the radiology department provides services that are utilized by almost every patient. Waiting time in radiology could be defined as the time between when a patient present at the radiology department for an investigation, and the time the investigation is done and a report written on the outcome of the investigation. The study was done to assess the factors affecting patient waiting time in radiology Department/ Centre’s in Owerri, Imo state, Nigeria. The study was also a cross-sectional survey that used over 150 people (over 20 Radiographers and over 120 patients), who are present during the study. The data collection instrument was 15 items, self-completion questionnaire for the radiographers and a 14 item, self-completion questionnaire for the patient. The questionnaire included demographic characteristics of patients and radiographers and 98% of the total questionnaire was returned. Both descriptive and inferential statistical test were done. Test were 2 tailed with p<0.05 indicating statistics significant. The results showed that lateness, volume of patient, and level of satisfaction in the department were perceived by the patients while lack of staff, faulty equipment and restriction of radiographers to report images were perceived by the radiographers as factors significantly affecting patient waiting time. The patient waiting time in the department has been implicated to be the leading cause of patient’s satisfaction in the department. From this study, it was observed that the patient was indifferent in their level of satisfaction in the department. This implied that they are either satisfied or not satisfied with the service